Wildlife Discoveries: Where are all the burning angels, flying stars, light dancers and fireflies?

GAIL COMPTONWildlife Discoveries

Published Saturday, July 17, 2004

ll you have to do is walk outside in spring or summer after sunset to know something's missing: burning angels, flying stars, light dancers, lightning bugs or fireflies. We all have tales about childhood evenings chasing fireflies.

But beyond romantic childhood memories, few know anything about fireflies or why they have disappeared from our neighborhoods. There are many species of firefly belonging to the beetle family called Lampyridae and each can be identified by the pattern of the flashes it emits. The light we see, produced in the last few segments on the underside of the abdomen, is called "bioluminescence" which produces cool light.

The lights are signals from males and females of the same species trying to find each other in darkness. Females wait on the ground or in bushes and respond to males of their own species by signaling. In the summer, females then lay eggs in the soil and in about four weeks larvae hatch and live a carnivorous existence at the base of grasses eating slugs, grubs, earthworms and anything else tasty found on the ground. These larvae or glowworms also produce the cool light.Fireflies spend two years as larvae: winter, the larvae go underground to wait for spring, emerge, eat, overwinter again, pupate underground and finally emerge as adults. One species of firefly has larvae preferring marsh habitats and climb up onto vegetation to pupate. Adults live only long enough to mate and produce more eggs.

Scientists have explored many causes for the decline in fireflies: loss of habitat, city lights, mosquito control sprays, and even fire ants, but none of these is the main cause. Lawn pesticides are the most likely culprits, destroying whole generations of larvae living at the base of lawn grasses. If you go to park areas where such poisons are not used, you will see fireflies.

One web site ( www.burger.com) keeps track of firefly sightings in Florida (email: burger@burger.com). One submitter from Broward County reported a backyard full of fireflies and then remarks that they live on a lake, have lots of flowers and butterfly gardens and do not use pesticides. I've seen fireflies at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre where there's deep woods surrounding the buildings and theater. We also saw a few on the March 27 night walk on the dunes boardwalk at Fort Matanzas National Monument.